Unsilent Night
by AAnitab
Summary: I'd meant to get this finished before the 25th, but that just didn't seem to happen.  Happy holidays to all. Even and especially a rather untraditional family in a weird little town in Maine.  It's a sequel to "Questioning Fate" and happens much later.


Title: Unsilent Night

Author: AnitaB

Author's note: I'd meant to get this finished before the 25th, but that just didn't seem to happen. Happy holidays to all. Even and especially a rather untraditional family in a weird little town in Maine. It's a sequel to "Questioning Fate" and takes place quite a bit later.

Unsilent Night

By AnitaB

Audrey rubbed a hand into the small of her back and rolled her eyes at the sounds above her kitchen ceiling. /Seriously, it's like I have four kids up there.\\ She dropped the towel on the counter and moved toward the stairs. "Silent night, my ass. Don't make me come up there!"

Another thud or two was followed by low male chuckling and high girlish screams. It was so very much past their bedtime. "Santa isn't bringing any presents until there's not a creature stirring!"

The only response from above was a little shushing and a very slight drop in volume. Then the girls starting laughing louder than before. Never send a man to do a woman's job. And sending two of them just made doubly sure the work didn't get done. Audrey rested a hand on her stomach and started up the stairs herself. "Why are my babies still out of bed?" The knob was under her hand in time for the sudden silence on the other side of the door. The hinges creaked open and Audrey saw bed covers fly up and two little girls start fake snoring just a little too loudly under the piles of blankets.

Sitting quietly in the chairs at each bedside were the supposed adults hiding behind the girls' favorite Christmas picture books. "Seriously?"

Two little giggles came muffled though blankets and at least one teddy bear. Two grown men shifted in their chairs nervously and refused to meet her eyes. "Seriously, what's so difficult to understand about 'It's late, please put the girls to bed'?"

"But, mama…" Light blonde, curly hair appeared from under the blanket and eyes exactly Nathan's shade blinked at her without even a hint of sleepiness. "We wants to see Sanda Clauds and his water deers."

Those eyes always had power over her. And her daughter Sarah was way more likely to try for puppy eyes than her father was. Audrey sat on the three-year old's bed and brushed her fingers through the softest curls on the planet. "Reindeer, sweetheart. And Santa only comes when all the good little girls and boys are asleep."

"That's not what uncle Duke said."

Uncle Duke flinched and held "The Night before Christmas" Muppet book higher in front of his face.

"And what did your uncle Duke tell you, darling?" Audrey turned to six year old Angela, who looked at her out of eyes the same color as her own and hair a little darker like her father's. "You know how he loves to tell stories."

"Uncle Duke knows all the bestest stories. Better than even the grampas tell." Angela wrapped her arms tighter around the stuffed tiger her uncle Duke had given her for her birthday. The innocent little girl still half believed he'd caught it for her on one of his 'trips'.

Audrey glanced over at "Uncle Duke" with an expression he always said the Nathan had used for years. She might love the former criminal, she even trusted him with her life and the lives she treasured most. That didn't mean she had any doubts about his ability to lie, fluently and right to someone's face. Even hers. Sometimes she counted on it. "Well, Uncle Duke… what tales of Santa have you been sharing with my babies?"

He had his time honored, 'trust me, I'm innocent, this time anyway' look when the book dropped enough to show her his face. "Well, mommy, I was telling the girls about how you saved us and everyone in Haven from being trapped in a snowglobe a few years back."

"And that has to do with Santa how?" She glanced at Nathan, but her big, brave husband was still deeply invested in Sarah's copy of Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, he even turned a page like he was reading. Eventually he felt her eyes through the illustrated shield and lowered it to meet her gaze.

"Well, that's why Santa told them not to get you the silent night music box they were going to buy." Nathan finally contributed to the conversation, reaching out a hand to stroke the backs of his fingers down Sarah's cheek.

The littlest Wournos then claimed her daddy's hand and used it for a pillow instead of her teddy bear. Audrey felt her heart tighten at the look on his face at his daughter's warmth. Both girls had her immunity to the troubles. She only prayed the little boy who adored kicking her bladder right now would be born with the same gift. But he would be loved and held every single day of his life no matter what. If he was born with his daddy's gift instead of hers, he still have his mother's touch, two older sisters who'd love him and cuddle him all the time, and a father who knew exactly what he was going through. And an Uncle Duke who would tease and protect him no matter what.

"Which led to the story about the invisible toys two years ago, which led to the shadow hiding people last year." Duke chimed in, almost like he was taking Nathan's bullet. It took years but these two men in her life had finally worked out the friend/brother thing they'd fought so long.

"Which let my baby girls think they could hide well enough to sneak a peak at Santa?"

"Not exactly." Nathan gave her a smile and reached out for the hand currently rubbing her stomach. "That led to the question of what trouble it is that lets Santa into homes without a fireplace and how he travels so fast." He glanced at the girls with a smile just curving his lips. Their daughters didn't blink an eye at the strangest of afflictions, but their version of Santa had to make sense. He just had to.

"So what did your Uncle Duke figure out about Santa?"

Sarah smiled and shrugged, moving higher up her father's wrist in the process. "That Sanda don't fly. He…" She lifted up to look at Duke with a question on her face. "What you called it, Unca Duck?"

"Astral projection." Only Duke Crocker could say those words with a straight face. But then he wasn't their designated liar for no reason.

"Yeah, that." Angela chimed in from her bed. "Only looks like he's there. Stays in the north pole and moves the presents with his gifts." Little fingers let go of the tiger to wiggle in the air in a move that looked just like her uncle's 'ooooh' gesture. "That's how he gets to aaallll those houses in one night. We wanna see if he's see-through."

"Don't forget da timneys. Not evry kid has a timney."

"That's right, sweetie, Santa's bringing presents to all those kids in apartments, and group homes, and house boats too." Unca Duck, as she called him, reached out and tousled her blonde curls before leaning back against her sister's bed and scratching a stuffed tiger behind one ear. "Sometimes he even brings presents to pet tigers and teddy bears."

"Like Tomtom and Rufus?" Angela pressed on the button on Tomtom's stomach to make him growl under Duke's fingers. Sarah waved Rufus in the air like he was flying. In the process she'd somehow wiggled half way across her father's lap to kick tiny bare feet over his arm.

There was nothing Audrey loved more in the world than watching her babies and her boys. "Yes, my babies, Santa's probably bringing Tomtom and Rufus presents too. But he can't come with your presents or their presents until… " Audrey waited a moment for Nathan to stop tickling Sarah and for Angela and Tomtom to stop pretending to chew off Duke's fingers. When four sets of her favorite eyes were on her, she went on. "Until all the good little girls are in bed and asleep."

"And bears."

"And tigers."

"And lions, oh my."

Audrey gave Duke the glare and the smile he wanted before stealing Sarah out of her father's arms. "Yup, any other creatures you've got in your collection need to go to sleep too." She tucked Rufus the bear into tiny arms and covered the whole squirming bundle with a quilt. Gesturing Angela and Tomtom under her blankets with Duke's help. "It's time for bed. Remember, you're not allowed to sneak down to the tree on your own."

"But, mama…"

"And don't 'but, mama' me. You're both to stay in your beds until we come to get you, got me?" Two sets of lungs gave plaintive little sighs, but Audrey knew better than to give in to her babies too often. Their father and uncle were pushovers enough. "I didn't hear you, sweeties."

"Yes, mama."

"I promise, mama."

"Those are my good babies. Sleep tight." Audrey kissed Sarah on the forehead before standing and giving Angela a kiss in the same spot as she tucked the sheets under her chin. She moved to the door and watched while both men got their good night kisses and turned on the girls' night lights.

There was nothing she loved more than watching those two little girls wrap people around their fingers. And these two men might as well be those little plastic jeweled rings the girls even slept and bathed in. A round of 'goodnights' by all and the adults stepped out, leaving the door open a crack.

Nathan's hand braced low against her back down the stairs. Only when they had finally gotten out of tiny but sensitive earshot, Audrey let herself smile at the men in her life. "Now that I've put the girls to bed, are you two manly men going to put their new bikes together or do I need to do that too."

"If you weren't grumpy from a baby tapping dancing on your bladder, you would have a hard time saying no to the girls too."

Nathan knew better than to say anything, she could feel that in the increased size of the circles he was rubbing on her back. "Duke, you know I love you, but even on maternity leave, I still have my gun."

"Yes, task-mistress-mommy." Duke laughed, dropped a kiss on her forehead just like the ones he gave the girls and tilted his head at her husband. "Come on, daddy, we manly men have a job to do."

Audrey tilted her head for Nathan's kiss, getting just a little lost in the familiar, but always necessary, warmth. "Yes, mama. Now you go sit down and take a break. I can feel your back aching from here." Another kiss just to keep her from hitting him and her husband disappeared into the garage to help Uncle Duke.

It was more than she'd ever expected to have and it wasn't just the baby hormones putting happy tears in her eyes. Even if it was never even a little bit normal, Haven was home and held everyone she loved.

Obeying orders from her superior officer, Audrey settled in on the living room couch with a cup of hot chocolate and listened to the clatter of tools and the mumbled instructions in the garage. So what if it wasn't a silent night. She'd take these kinds of noises any day.


End file.
